To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Optimist becoming an international class, we will be using a special IODA Logo in 2023 to commemorate this important milestone.

The Notice of Race for the 2023 Optimist World Championship taking place in Costa Brava, Spain from June 15-25th, has been posted on the Event Microsite.

The Event Microsite can be found here.

The NOR can be downloaded here.  

Make sure your read the NOR thoroughly as it contains all the information you need to register your team.

Registration is now open. All IODA Members are to use their username and 2023 Password for entry into the Online Registration System.

The First Entry Stage deadline is February 15^th.

This will be the 6^th time in the history of the Optimist Class that the World Championship has been hosted by Spain and 20 years since the last time in 2003 in Gran Canaria.  

To commemorate this achievement, the World Championship organizers have created the ‘Pennant Campaign’ to celebrate with past venues throughout Spain that hosted the World Championship in 1979, 1986, 1993, 2000, 2003 and this year in 2023.

The ‘Pennant Campaign’ involves a past host club exchanging their club pennant with the one created for the 2023 World Championship. They will all be on display at the venue next year.

Spain has been a member for 50 years and has played a pivotal role in the history and development of the Optimist class over the years.

We welcome all our members to attend the 2023 Optimist World Championship as together we will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Championship as well as the 50th Anniversary of the Optimist becoming an International Class!

The organizers are planning for the Optimist world to come to Costa Brava, Spain to celebrate these two significant milestones!

The Notice of Race for the 2023 Optimist South American Champion-ship taking place in Paracas, Peru April 15-22^nd, has been posted on the Event Microsite.

The Event Microsite can be found here.

The NOR can be located here. 

Make sure your read the NOR thoroughly as it contains all the information you need to register your team.

Registration is open. All IODA Members are to use their Username and 2023 Password for entry into the Registration system.

The First Entry Stage deadline was January 27th.

The Second Entry Stage deadline is February 20th.

This is the fourth time since the year 2000 that PER has hosted the Optimist South American Championship and the third time in Paracus, Peru.

At the first event in 2001 held in Paracus, Sime Fantela (CRO) was first overall with Bernardo Luz (BRA) awarded the 2001 Optimist South American Championship title.

In 2008, also in Paracus, Ian Burrows (ISV) was first over all with Gonzolo Bisi (ARG) taking the 2008 South American Championship title.

In 2015, the event was held in La Punta, Peru. First overall and the 2015 Optimist South American Champion was Juan Ignacio Quarel (ARG). 

We are looking forward to coming back to Paracus again for the 3rd time for the 2023 Optimist South American Championship and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the class.

The Notice of Race for the 2023 Optimist African Championship taking place in M'Diq, Morocco from May 2-9th, has been posted on the Event Microsite.

The Event Microsite can be found here.

The NOR can be down- loaded here. 

Make sure your read the NOR thoroughly as it contains all the information you need to register your team.

Registration is open. All IODA Members are to use their Username and a 2023 Password for entry into the Online Registration System.

The First Stage Entry deadline is February 13th. 

This will be the third time that Morocco has hosted the Optimist African Championship since it started in 2001. 

The first time was almost 20 years ago, for the second running of the Optimist African Championship, whereby 43 sailors representing RSA, ALG, MAR, EGY, SAY, KEN, ZIM and TUN particpated.

The 2002 Optiimist African Champion was Rudy Mcneill (RSA), followed by Bourai Tayeb (ALG) in silver,and Hamza Lboukili (ALG) in bronze. The top girl at the championship was Dina Ramadan (EGY) in 5th overall followed by one suspects, was her sister Rania Ramadan (EGY) in 6th.  

The second time Morocco hosted the African Championship was in 2014 in Agadir, Morocco. 73 sailors from 12 nations participated from MOZ, ANG, TUN, RSA, DEN, ALG, FRA, MAR, OMA, TAN, UAE and ZIM.

The 2014 Optimist African Champion was Diogo Sanches (MOZ), followed by Jeremias de Sousa (ANG) in silver and Rami Ridene (TUN) in bronze. Top girl at the championship was Arin Long (RSA) in 4th overall.  

Ilker Bayindir (TUR) was the PRO at the 2014 Championship. Ilker has been a member of the IODA Regatta Committee for 11 years and today, continues to act as an IODA PRO for many of our Championships, most recently at the 2022 Asian & Oceanian Championship in Mumbia, India in December. 

We hope that every Member country from Africa and many more internationally come to Morocco this year.

We look forward to coming to Morocco for the 2023 Optimist African Championship and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of IODA.

The Notice of Race for the 2023 Optimist European Championship hosted by the Nautical Club Thessaloniki, in Kalamaria, Greece from July 15-22, has been posted on the Event Microsite.





The Event Microsite can be found here.

The NOR can be downloaded here. 

Make sure your read the NOR thoroughly as it contains all the information you need to register your team.

Registration opened on Friday, January 27th.  All IODA Members are to use their Username and a 2023 Password for entry into the Online Registration System.

The First Entry Stage deadline is February 20th. 

This is the second time since 2000 that Greece has hosted the Optimist European Championship. The last time was in 2007 in Varkiza, Greece. 143 boys representing 37 nations and 86 girls representing 33 nations for a total of 229 sailors took part in the event.

In the Boys Fleet, the 2007 Optimist European Champion was awarded to Etienne Le Pen (FRA) followed by Leonardo Dubbini (ITA) in silver and Juraj Divjakinja (CRO) in bronze.

In the Girls Fleet, the 2007 Optimist European Champion was awarded to Patricia Coro (ESP) followed by Julia Gross (SWE) in silver, and Daniela Zimmermann (PER) in bronze.

We look forward to coming to the Nautical Club Thessaloniki for the 2023 Optimist European Championship and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Optimist becoming an international class.

Optimists were out Team Racing in the village basin on the day before the start of the Ocean Race that took place on Sunday, January 15^th.

Spectators were watching the racing as it unfolded amongst the IMOCA 60s and VO 65’s as the crews made final preparations for the start the next day.

After racing, Sigrid Beckmann. VP America gave a ROPE Presentation as part of the 11^th Hour Sustainability program to the group of Opti Sailors that were out team racing in the basin.

The ROPE program which stands for Recycled Optimist Parts and Equipment is a youth peer-to-peer donation program that IODA developed in 2021 that encourages sailors to donate used equipment to programs in need at our IODA Championships and to leave a legacy to the local sailing community.

The ROPE Program was a finalist in the 2021 World Sailing 11th Hour Sustainability Awards.

Education to young sailors about this program is a key driver of success. We hope to engage more youth at other legs of the Ocean Race about the ROPE program and the circular economy. 

For the past 50 years, both the Optimist Class and the Ocean Race have changed the world of sailing. The Optimist is where kids learn resilience and the love sailing and the Ocean Race is where they experience the challenges and thrills of the open ocean.

The guests at the Flagship Night on the opening evening of Düsseldorf Boat Show celebrated the new Seamaster 2023 with a one-minute standing ovation: The Ukrainian Opti trainer Pavlo Dontsov was honored for his outstanding and hope-inspiring commitment to his team of Optimist sailors.

For the ninth time since 2013, the Seamaster Award was presented at the Flagship Night at the Düsseldorf Boat Show. Great sailors like Loïck Peyron, Jimmy Spithill, Clarisse Crémer, François Gabart, Carolijn Brouwer and “Malizia – Seaexplorer” skipper Boris Herrmann have won this award.

The Ukrainian Optimist Coach, Pavlo Dontsov was honored at the Dusseldorf maritime kick-off gala. For a minute, hundreds of guests celebrated the 29-year-old coach from “Opti Sailing Team Ukraine” with standing ovations. Many had heard about the group of Optimist Sailors with the ‘reckless’ coach and their actions in the past year. (Read the story "The Ukranian Optimist Team on the Move in Europe" from March 29, 2022 here.)

Pavlo Dontsov came to Düsseldorf with the 15-year-old Ukrainian top Optimist sailor Sviatoslav Madonich and his father Slava Madonich for the honor.

Following this event, Sviatoslav Madonich won the XV Trofeo Euromarina Optimist in Torrevieja, Spain held January 26-29th where he topped over 400 sailors from 26 countries.

Madonich finished 6^th overall at the 2022 Optimist World Championship in Bodrum Turkey last year and is considered a top contender at the 2023 Optimist World Championship in Costa Brava, Spain June 15-25^th.